


Jailbreak

by Lavender_Menace



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: All the Klaus Hargreeves Typical Warnings, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Discussion of Non-Consensual Medication, Empathy, Gen, Good Sibling Klaus Hargreeves, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, No Incest, Other Hargreeves (Mentioned), Public Transportation, Running Away, Season/Series 01, Stigma Against Mental Illness, They All Hug Each Other, Trauma, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug, internalized ableism, past overdose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27200296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavender_Menace/pseuds/Lavender_Menace
Summary: Klaus hadn’t been quite sure what he was doing when he snuck down into the basement that night, all he knew was that what Luther was doing to Vanya—what they were letting Luther do to Vanya—was wrong.It only took a glimpse of Vanya curled up on the floor of the chamber for Klaus to make a decision. He was going to get his little sister out of there.Right now.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 61
Kudos: 551





	1. Break

**Author's Note:**

> I posted the first half of this to tumblr as a ficlet, here's the whole thing

Vanya had cried herself out. 

Sitting on the floor of her cage she stared blankly at the door, her chest heaving as she shivered in the cold silent room.

_ God it was so quiet.  _

She wondered how long it would take for her to lose her mind to the silence. Already she felt herself slipping, unsure of whether she was an adult or a child. She couldn’t hear anything but her own heartbeat, her own breaths. The cold air sent shivers down her spine and up her arms and Vanya drew into herself as she stopped struggling entirely. 

The room looked the same in the present and the gasping flickers of the past. 

She was unsure of how long she sat there. 

The world blurred.

Dulled.

It was so quiet. 

Her heartbeat slowed down.

And Vanya retreated into herself.

When she suddenly (finally) saw movement—a flash of shadow across the chamber’s tiny window—she startled so hard that she hurt her back. Wherever her mind had gone she was dragged so abruptly back to the present that she flung herself nearly a foot away from the door in the process, her heart beating wildly. She could feel the chamber vibrating slightly as her breaths turned ragged and her eyes struggled to process who it was that stood before her prison. 

It was Klaus, gesturing frantically. 

She’d never been so happy to see him.

Standing slowly Vanya approached the window as Klaus continued to gesture, turning as though he was talking to someone before looking her dead in the eye. He mouthed a single word.

_ Jailbreak _ .

She watched as Klaus threw himself against the door’s handwheel with all his weight, pushing again and again but failing to turn it. The window of the chamber was too small to truly see what he was doing but Vanya stood on her tiptoes trying to catch as much as she could. Klaus’s face quickly became lined with sweat and as he backed up to examine the door, his thin chest heaved. Every one of his limbs seemed too narrow and Vanya felt something in her chest twist.

Only one sibling out of her entire family had thought that she was worth rescuing, and it was the one sibling who  _ just couldn’t do it _ . 

As she watched her brother struggle from the silence of her prison tears began to run down her face. Vanya didn’t pause to wipe them away, too focused on witnessing Klaus fight for her freedom. 

She wondered when he was going to give up. 

But Klaus struggled on, second after agonizing second. Every time that Vanya thought he was about to walk away he turned back toward her, muttering inaudibly to himself as he wiped sweat from his face. There was a resolve in his eyes that Vanya had never seen before.

-+-+-

When they were seventeen, a month after Ben’s death Klaus had overdosed.

Their father had always called Klaus the disappointment of the Umbrella Academy. Even as he’d isolated Vanya by pushing her out of sight, he’d pulled Klaus into the spotlight by his ear, berating him and using him as an example to the others as to what absolute failure looked like. 

_ Klaus was lazy. Klaus was stupid. Everything that Klaus did he did for attention _ . 

When Klaus had cried Reginald had scolded him for  _ looking for sympathy _ , when he’d fallen into the dirt during training Vanya had seen Reginald call her other siblings into a circle around him so that he could go on about them being  _ only as strong as their weakest link _ . As a child in the shadows Vanya had laughed along with the others, and she’d thought nothing of it.

After all, Klaus had laughed too. 

Even after Ben had died Klaus never stopped laughing. Vanya quickly grew to resent him for that. 

When Klaus overdosed Vanya had been the one to find him. 

She’d been in the kitchen late at night, making a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich for Five when she saw something out in the courtyard. Vanya remembered the surge of hope and fear she felt, how she’d thought for a moment that the shape crumpled against Ben’s shiny new statue was Five, finally returned to them. 

She’d been disappointed to realize that it was just Klaus. 

The night had been cold—colder than it had been on the day of Ben’s funeral, colder than her cage in the basement—and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. As she stepped barefoot into the courtyard she looked at her brother, lying curled up on the ground with snow accumulating on his hair and clothes. His face was slack and Vanya remembered thinking _ I guess there’s only four of us now _ . 

She’d given up on him immediately. 

But as she’d run for mom anyway.

And Klaus had lived. 

Vanya didn’t remember being scared, or even terribly sad at that moment. She’d just accepted it. 

Her and all of their siblings were so used to Klaus being the family fuckup that it had seemed the natural end to his story. 

But he had survived to overdose again and again and again.

Later, when she was older, Vanya sometimes felt sorrow for her brother. She briefly tasted a moment of empathetic grief for what he became, but then she took another pill and slid back into comfortable numbness. Any remaining feelings for Klaus and the rest of her family festered in her until nothing was left but bitterness. Resentment was easy, Vanya could deal with anger.

She didn’t know how to deal with empathy for Klaus, it wasn’t her pain and she didn’t want to feel it.

Eventually Vanya stopped answering calls from the hospital.

-+-+-

Klaus was shaking from exertion. Pacing back and forth and arguing with someone Vanya couldn’t see. She wondered if it was a ghost, or if Klaus was just high.

He shook himself and stood directly in front of the door, meeting Vanya’s eyes again and she realized that his hands were glowing blue.

_ And Ben was standing behind him _ .

Vanya’s eyes widened in shock.

No one had ever believed Klaus when he claimed that he could talk to Ben. It was an accepted fact that Klaus’s powers didn’t work when he was high and as far as any of them knew he’d been at least perpetually buzzed since they were preteens. 

_ Everything that Klaus did he did for attention.  _ He had laughed just days after the funeral. Why would they have believed him when he’d claimed that Ben was there?

But Ben was there. As Vanya stared he and Klaus pulled at handwheel in tandem, and with an unholy screech  _ it turned _ .

Vanya remembered being locked into the chamber as a child. 

She remembered that door closing and locking her in there.

She remembered it opening for Reginald to speak with her only to turn and lock her in again. 

Vanya did not remember ever being let out of her prison. 

She launched herself at Klaus and Ben, knocking all three of them  _ three of them _ onto the floor. 

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.” Huge sobs wracked her frame and she rocked against her brothers’ arms as they held her. Ben was cold as she clung to his leather jacket, Klaus was sweaty and shaking just as hard as she was. She never wanted to let them go. 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Klaus hadn’t been quite sure what he was doing when he snuck down into the basement that night, all he knew was that what Luther was doing to Vanya—what they were _ letting  _ Luther do to Vanya— was wrong.

It only took a glimpse of Vanya curled up on the floor of the chamber for Klaus to make a decision. He was going to get his little sister out of there. 

Right now. 

It was easier in theory than practice. The chamber had obviously been built to be sturdy and Luther had tightened the door. Klaus was not a physically strong person, he’d gained quite a bit of muscle in Vietnam but he still couldn’t measure up to Luther, or even to Diego. Still he was a stubborn bullheaded asshole, and he’d decided to get Vanya out. 

Ben was cheering him on. The bastard. 

His voice was constant as Klaus struggled, and everytime Klaus faltered Ben’s hands reached out as though to help him pull. Over and over again his brother’s hands passed right through. It was frustrating and Klaus, who was not a person prone to anger, found himself snarling as he wiped sweat from his face. 

When Klaus ran out of strength he found himself striding back and forth with his hands in his hair, panting for breath. A few ghosts had followed him downstairs, they muttered and gurgled and called out to him as he paced. Klaus did his best to ignore them, focusing on Ben, 

He and Ben went over every possible option; who they could ask for help, where they could go, what was actually going on?

_ What were they even doing? _

Part of his half-panicked mind cried out for him to run, to flee into the night and forget everything that had happened to him since Reginald’s funeral. Could he forget the sensation of Dave’s blood pushing through his fingers? His life before hadn’t been good, but he’d been too numb to process the pain and trauma that he’d experienced. Now he felt, and all he felt was fear and grief and unwelcome gut wrenching empathy. It was the empathy that made him turn back to Vanya, to meet her tearful eyes through the thick glass. 

Klaus wondered if Vanya missed being numb too.

And then he leapt back into action again. As he pushed and pulled at the grab-wheel Klaus wished fervently for Allison, with her cool head and compassionate heart. She’d been the only one to fight Luther when he’d thrown Vanya into the chamber. 

Klaus had wanted to ask her for help, but she was hurt and resting with Luther sitting at her bedside like a sentinel. When Ben had returned from looking in on them he’d reported that Luther was crying, normally Klaus would be sympathetic but over the last few days his feelings for his brother had cooled significantly. 

The back of his head still ached, and it hurt to swallow.

Klaus wondered if he had large hand shaped bruises around his neck. 

With a scream of frustration Klaus threw his weight against the wheel, jamming his shoulder against the cold metal of the door as he fought to free Vanya, and suddenly the room went cold as his hands lit up blue. The ghosts that had followed them downstairs were suddenly silenced as Ben’s hands solidified and braced themselves against Klaus’s.

_ And then they pushed together. _

-+-+-

Klaus’s powers were the source of a lot of the fucked up shit in his life. Not all of it, but a lot. As a child they’d created and fed a host of phobias that prompted Reginald to try to toughen him up by any means necessary, that in turn had led to substance abuse and addiction from puberty until present. 

His powers (in turn with his inability to shut up) had also led to a variety of psychological misdiagnoses, as well as him being removed from several potentially helpful social programs due to his refusal to adhere to treatment for said misdiagnoses. He had tried antipsychotics once, and found that the ghosts were unaffected. He had also found out that  Aripiprazole made him too dizzy to stand up, and not even in a fun way.

Even as a child superhero (a child soldier) his powers had never been useful. He’d been put on lookout duty early on, and the times that he’d ended up being pulled into the fight he’d relied on physical training and a bit of cleverness to save himself from injury. 

Reginald had been disappointed. His siblings had been annoyed. 

The only good thing that his powers had ever done for him was that they’d allowed him to keep Ben with him, and to communicate with him after his brother’s untimely death. Without Ben he was pretty sure that he would have died alone in an alley years ago. 

While he and his ghostliest brother spent most of their time bickering Ben had developed into something of a mother-hen and spent an awful lot of time cheering Klaus on, doing his best to support him when he was struggling. Klaus rarely acknowledged it, but he was grateful.

Even as he pushed at the door to Vanya’s cage, snarling and sweating Klaus was grateful. 

And for the first time ever, Klaus’s powers were useful.

-+-+-+-

Ben’s hands were cold, but solid.

Klaus’s hands were  _ blue _ and  _ freezing _ . His fingers tingled and stung with it, but he kept pushing anyway. The hard metal of the grab-wheel seemed warm by comparison as his sweat turned frigid, running across his skin like ice water. 

Ben was solid and they were pushing together—Klaus had made his brother corporal only once, a few hours before when Ben had punched a mouthful of Percs right onto the floor, sometime later they’d probably freak out about this—but for now they pushed together and finally  _ finally _ the wheel started to turn.

And then Klaus had an armful of sobbing sister.

He’d never had a better hug.

“Shhhh” He rocked her back and forth, leaning against Ben’s chest, and he was hugging both of them. The room was freezing, Klaus was freezing, but his heart had never felt so warm. Klaus had never once been so sure that he’d done the right thing. That he was doing the right thing.

They needed to get out of the Academy.

As soon as possible.

But Klaus allowed them the moment. He’d never been good at attending to pressing matters, putting comfort first. Vayna wept against his chest, and he held her. Ben didn’t breathe but he made soft comforting sounds and he had one arm pressed against Klaus’s back. If Klaus was crying a little bit too, so was Ben. So what? 

Eventually Klaus felt something inside him collapse. He and Vanya jerked forward as the cold blue light disappeared and Ben lurched back into incorporality. Vanya looked as though her heart was breaking all over again, and the expression on Ben’s face was indescribable. Something in Klaus’s chest twisted and he felt breathless, oddly exhausted and faint. He pulled Vanya in with both of his arms, clinging to her for a bare moment before pulling away. He held to her hand and stood up.

“We need to go.”

And then they were in the elevator, and running through the kitchen and out the side door as though they were still children sneaking out. There was no sign of Pogo or Grace, Klaus wondered briefly if they noticed and were simply letting them escape into the night. 

Neither of them were dressed for the cold of April, and Klaus had nothing but a pocketful of condoms and two twenties hidden, one in each shoe. He stopped them at a dimly lit bus stop to pull them out and stick one in his pocket and the other in Vanya’s. In the streetlight he could see tear tracks glinting off on Vanya’s skin, and as they made their way through the city her breath hitched several times, seeming to shake the very air around them. 

Klaus could see that she was struggling to keep herself calm.

He remembered the way that blood had pooled around Allison the day before, pouring from the deep slice in her throat, and was grateful to Vanya for trying to maintain control. He knew that his gentle sister would never have intentionally hurt Allison in the same way that he knew that Allison forgave her for it. He’d seen it in both of their eyes earlier that day. 

Her hand felt small in his as he led her into the subway. 

“Where are we going?” She asked as they sat on the cold plastic benches, fingers still interlaced. Klaus could feel himself trembling, Vanya had deep shadows around her eyes, like bruises.

“Away.” He replied, feeling childish. Ben stood tall beside them. How many times had he loomed protectively over Klaus as though he could somehow protect him from the hardships of his life? Now with Klaus's powers he actually had the potential to do so. His presence was comforting either way.

"I thought we'd go to Philadelphia." Klaus said, as though he hadn't just pulled the idea out of his ass. "It's not a long trip but it'll give us some space. No one will find us there for a while." 

Vanya nodded and leaned against him. Together they swayed back and forth with the movement of the train. 


	2. Dear Fellow Traveler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya and Klaus hit the road. Klaus feels responsible, Vanya learns more about her medication

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The much belated chapter two! It looks like there's going to have to be at least one more

“We should stop at my apartment.” Vanya murmured, her voice rough from screaming. Beside her Klaus turned, listening intently over the mechanical sounds of the subway. 

It was odd, Vanya mused, for one of her siblings to pay her so much attention.

She wondered if it was because she had powers now.

“You don’t have enough money to get us both to Philadelphia, let alone get us a place to stay once we’re there.” Vanya had been to Philadelphia a few times for performances and found it economically comparable to New York. If they wanted to spend the night somewhere warmer than a park bench they’d need money, and besides, if they were going somewhere she wanted to bring her violin. 

Vanya was focusing on small reasonable goals, dealing with the immediate problems rather than allowing herself to be overwhelmed. Her therapist would have been proud (as long as she didn’t mention slicing her sister’s neck and murdering her boyfriend)

“Fair point.” Klaus hummed. His eyes glanced away from hers and he looked as though he was hearing something that Vanya could not. 

She wondered if Klaus had done this before, if he’d just run away somewhere with no plan and no money. She knew on some distant level that he was homeless, and that he’d been so for years, but the thought of her brother sleeping in a bus stop or an alleyway in this sort of weather made her blood run cold. If he was alone then maybe he would have been able to find a homeless shelter or gone home with someone that he’d met at a party or club.

Somehow that last option seemed like the worst. 

The two of them probably would not have been allowed to stay together in a homeless shelter, and she didn’t think she’d be able to get away with following Klaus into a strangers apartment even if she’d wanted to.

Looking down Vanya noticed that her hands were bruised, her fingernails torn and streaked with dried blood from where she’d struggled against the chamber’s steel door. Her entire body ached from her throat to her calves. Vanya knew that her eyes were probably bloodshot from all the crying that she’d done on the last day.

Her neighbors would be worried if they ran into her on the stairs.

The two (three?) of them got off the train two blocks from her apartment and Vanya was startled by just how cold the air seemed compared to the heated subway car. Beside her Klaus wrapped his arms around himself, completely unprotected by his bright tank top and olive vest as they climbed the stairs up to street level. Once they reached the surface he shivered under the streetlight for a moment, staring off into the middle distance as he often did before nodding resolutely.

When Klaus held out his hand Vanya took it, and allowed her brother to lead them up the street to her building. 

-+-+-+-

Her apartment was just as she’d left it. 

After everything in her life that had changed it was almost surreal to be back in her own space surrounded by her ordinary everyday possessions. Vanya could feel the urge to just sit down on her bland little couch and allow herself to blend in, like a chameleon or just another piece of furniture. 

She resisted. 

If they stayed here then the others would find them. 

Vanya didn’t know what would happen if they did. 

Instead she deposited Klaus on the couch before dashing into the bedroom to stuff a backpack with anything that she could think of that would be useful. It was a stroke of luck that she hadn't been to a bank recently, and the cash from her violin lessons was still stashed in the lockbox under her bed.

As she rattled around the apartment Vanya couldn’t help but glance at Klaus sitting awkwardly in her living room, Her brother was looking around, alternately staring into space and examining Vanya’s possessions, muttering. She watched from her bedroom door as he rhythmically rubbed the knuckles of his right hand  _ goodbye _ across the upholstery of the couch. 

It was familiar, in an odd nostalgic way. No matter how many years passed Klaus still fidgeted and muttered. When they were children Vanya had taken his behavior as normal enough, Klaus had always been just Klaus, but she wondered now how the world saw her brother. People would probably have clocked him as abnormal even if he’d been sober and lived in a normal apartment, as a homeless junkie it was alarmingly easy to write him off as crazy immediately. 

Maybe that’s why no one had found them yet. Who would suspect their insane brother Klaus?

After a moment’s hesitation Vanya walked to the kitchenette and reached into the refrigerator, bypassing the empty butter compartment to slip her hand into the vegetable crisper. She’d kept her drugs in the refrigerator since she’d moved in, it made it easy to remember to grab a dose with breakfast, and more importantly no one would have ever thought to look there.

Ever since Klaus had started using Vanya had hidden her pills, she’d done so religiously until the action became second nature. Reginald had encouraged secrecy, unhesitatingly casting suspicion upon her brother. Despite this, to Vanya’s knowledge Kalus had never once stolen her medication. 

To her family the subject had always been treated as something shameful.

Vanya’s mental illness had been used as yet another way to separate her from her siblings. Although obviously Klaus was at least as mentally ill as she was. 

In her book Vanya had suggested that _ none  _ of her siblings had grown up to be well adjusted adults and the past week had only strengthened that conviction. They were no better than her, and they never had been.

Any difference between Vanya and her siblings had been manufactured by Reginald in order to control her.

The pills rattled in their bottle as her apartment building began to shake, and the world fell away, replaced by the ringing in Vanya’s ears. She didn’t sense her brother’s approach, nor did she notice the way that the strings on her violin began to hum, vibrating seemingly on their own accord. It was not until Klaus gently rested a hand on her back that Vanya returned to herself. As her eyes regained their focus the shaking stopped. 

“You okay?” It was an absurd question, made more so by the state of the asker. Between the two of them they had probably more bruised skin than not, and Vanya could see the echo of the exhaustion that she felt in the dark half-circles under Klaus’s eyes. 

His hand shook where it made contact with her back.

She took a deep breath before nodding. Klaus didn’t look as though he believed her but her brother didn’t push. Instead he reached for the bottle in her hand, gently taking it from her and squinting at the label. 

“Dude.” He said, voice echoing through the absolute silence of the apartment. “Have you always taken these?” 

Vanya nodded again, turning to see Klaus’s facial expression. He seemed distrubed, his brows furrowed and eyes continuing to flick back and forth between Vanya’s face and empty air. She wondered if Ben was there, talking to him.

She wondered if he’d always been there.

“Vanya this is Clozapine.” She nodded again, wondering when Klaus would get to his point. ‘You should  _ never _ give this to a kid. What the fuck?”

She bit her lip feeling irrationally as if she was being scolded. Klaus looked away, beginning a quick muttered conversation with whoever it was that she couldn’t see. 

“Are you sure?

“Isn’t this the one that Nick tried to sell me in the psych center?” 

“Yeah yeah I remember. Eventually they just injected him.” 

_ “Fuck!” _

Watching Klaus have a conversation with what appeared to be thin air was different now that she was allowing herself to believe that there was someone there to answer him. 

It was unnerving. 

Even more unnerving was the fact that they were talking about  _ her.  _

“Vanya.” Klaus said suddenly, locking eyes with her. “Ben says that this is the kind of drug that usually only gets prescribed to people with treatment resistant schizophrenia. You should never have been taking this. There’s no way that a kid could even be diagnosed with something that would warrant taking this.” 

It made sense given everything. Nothing else that Reginald had ever told her had been true, why would the medication that he’d told her had been for anxiety have actually been a medication used to treat anxiety? 

With a surge of fury she grabbed the bottle from Klaus’s cold hand and threw it into the trash. The resulting clatter of pills against plastic was anticlimactic compared to the rage that burned in her chest, but she supplemented it by slamming the fridge shut behind her and striding across the room. Vanya packed her violin into its case with a huff before turning on her heel to gaze at Klaus, who was still standing in the kitchen. 

“I’m ready to go. Let’s get out of here.”

-+-+-+-+-+-+-

They took a bus from Port Authority. 

It was small and cramped and dirty, Klaus had bought the tickets as quickly and cheaply as possible. Technically the bus wasn’t even going to Philadelphia, instead it was letting off in suburban King of Prussia, but it was the quickest way out of town and neither Klaus nor Vanya cared enough to wait another hour. It wasn’t as though they were going on vacation, as long as their family didn’t think to look for them Vanya didn’t care where they went. 

The trip cost less than forty dollars one way which surprised her. Still Vanya was grateful, her earnings from the violin lessons only amounted to a few hundred dollars and hotels were expensive. 

Thankfully the bus, though rather shabby, had a heating system. A steady stream of hot dry air was pushed into the cabin just above her and Klaus’s seats, Vanya could feel warmth returning to her bones even as it seemed to scorch her skin. Both of them would undoubtedly have chapped lips after their trip, but it was a small price to pay after the cold damp of the night. While Vanya had grabbed her jacket from her apartment Klaus was still woefully underdressed and he didn’t stop shivering even after a full half hour on the bus. 

It was possible that he was still in withdrawal, but the sheen of sweat that had glittered on his brow through the evening had dried.

Klaus had dog tags looped on a chain around his neck, clasped between his hands like a rosary. As the bus drove onward Vanya shifted her violin case in her cramped space and resolved not to stare. 

-+-+-+-+-

Ben had said that he was going to check on the others still at the Academy before vanishing from the bus station, leaving Klaus and Vanya to set out into the unknown without him. Klaus was sure he’d reappear at some point, he always did.

In the meantime he was content to wait on the warm bus. He’d taken greyhound busses back and forth before, going from city to city on a whim. New York was his home, and the city he knew best but winters were harsh on the streets, and he and Ben had made their way South in the colder months more than once. When it came to a choice between freezing to death, going to a rehab for shelter, and partying in Miami the choice was usually clear. 

As long as he was sober enough to make that decision.

As long as he didn’t spend the bus money on drugs.

Instant gratification had long been his best friend and worst enemy. Ben called him impulsive, Klaus usually argued that he was fun. 

With Vanya beside him, small and huddled under her large coat and violin case he realized that the first time he was responsible for a living person. As a child he’d relied upon and blamed others for everything, on the streets he’d been responsible for himself (Ben was self-sufficient and often found himself attempting to Jiminy Cricket Klaus out of near death situations). Even in the army he had been part of a unit, following an officer. If you fucked up in Vietnam you could screw your whole squad, but in the end you were still only responsible for yourself, and then additionally your commanding officer was responsible for keeping you in line.

But now, he was the one who’d gotten Vanya out of the chamber. He was the one who’d suggested they run to Philly. From here on if everything went to shit it was on him. There was no commanding officer, no Number One, just Klaus and Vanya.

Klaus fingered Dave’s dog tags and longed for Ben. Once his ghostliest brother returned Klaus could at least ask him for advice. Of the two of them Ben was the level head.

Klaus was just another beating heart. 

Once Ben caught up with them they could come up with a plan, they’d know which siblings were chasing them down and why. Unlike the last time that Klaus had disappeared he was sure that this time someone would notice that he was gone—that Vanya was gone. 

Internally Klaus lamented, if the two of them had somehow known to run a week ago no one would have searched for them, maybe one of Vanya’s neighbors or coworkers would have called the police eventually but beyond that he and Vanya were both exactly the sort of disconnected people who could just vanish into thin air. 

Klaus pulled his legs up to his chest and hunkered into the seat, pushing his face into his knees and exhaling slowly. The bus’s engine roared steadily, blocking out the few ghosts that had managed to hitch a ride. The sound was constant and comforting, and in less than ten minutes Klaus had drifted off. 

-+-+-

He awoke with a gasp over an hour later as the bus shuddered to a stop, old brakes squealing as the engine cut off. Klaus’s heart was beating rapidly against his ribcage as the fleeting memories of his dream slipped away into the recesses of his subconscious. Groaning Klaus rubbed at his eyes and stretched before looking over at Vanya. 

To her sister’s credit she looked entirely composed. More like a travelling professional than an escapee superhuman who had recently quit her antipsychotic prescription cold turkey. Klaus knew from experience that the first withdrawal was always the gentlest although far from pleasant, and he resolved to try to keep Vanya from relying on her medication again unless it became completely necessary. There were less dangerous alternatives and Klaus would be willing to accompany her to a real psychiatrist should the need arise. 

They had more than enough addiction in their family between Klaus and Five. 

Ideally Klaus would be able to remain clean, but he didn’t know how long that would actually work in practice. It would have to be long enough for him to see Dave, the idea of resigning himself to never seeing him again for the sake of a high made something cold and rotten turn in Klaus’s stomach. 

Vanya stirred beside him, looking eager to get out of the cramped bus seat, a sentiment that Klaus couldn’t help but echo. For all that the vehicle was warm it failed to provide adequate leg room and the breath of however many strangers was treating to make the air go stale. A bead of sweat dripped from his temple into his beard and Klaus craved a hit. 

His legs cramped as he stood, and he reached down to take Vanya’s bag for her, leaving his sister to hold her violin unencumbered. Together they pushed their way through the crowd and were spat out into the cold damp morning. 

Klaus could see Vanya’s breath. He wished that she would stop looking at him. He wished Ben would hurry back. The wind tore through Klaus’s thin clothes immediately pulling the warmth from his body. Shouldering Vanya’s bag he set off down the sidewalk, glancing over his shoulder to see if his sister would follow. 

In the lamplight her eyes were set, determined and as hard as glass. The bus’s windows rattled in their frames as it drove away. If the air gained a tense charged quality to it Klaus said nothing, instead he took a deep breath and allowed his eyes to slip from her pale face. For once the presence of the dead was comforting, familiar and no real threat compared to the living. 

As if to contradict his thought the deceased little old lady hunched in the alley started to wail. Her grief stricken voice cut through the silence of the dark morning. It was far from comforting. 

They made it to the motel.

Eventually. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please leave a comment if you like it, writing this kind of felt like a weird fever dream

**Author's Note:**

> tbh I'm not actually sure if I like this but I needed to stop looking a the open word document, comment if you think it's good


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